Botticelli “Pallas and the Centaur” at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence

Tempera on Canvas (207 x 148 cm) 1482

Botticelli, Pallas and the Centaur, Uffizi Gallery, Florence Italy

Pallas and the Centaur This painting shows us a young woman, Minerva-Pallas, in front of a seascape, holding a centaur by her hair.

Contrary to the usual image of a Pallas armed with a spear, she holds here a halberd, the Florentine halberd.

Its transparent garments adorned with garlands of olive trees and a pattern embroidered with three or four crisscross rings with diamond tips.

A motif related to the motto “Deo lover”, dedicated to God, which was that of Cosimo the Elder and then the Medici of the main branch, including Lorenzo the Magnificent.

As a result, it is believed that this painting was offered as a wedding gift to cousin Lorenzo called “minor” who married Semiramide Appiani in 1482.

The Neo-Platonic allegory here alludes to the chaste love that opposes the senses, in an antithesis between the passionate nature of the Centaurus and the purity of the goddess: lust against chastity, the instinct of the beast against the reason of the goddess.

Pallas and the Centaur